My own experience of having my doctor tell me that the symptoms I was having were not from the Mevacor he prescribed for me has made me extremely cautious of what medications I take. The reason being that I decided to take myself off Mevacor and within several weeks, the painful muscles and memory problems disappeared. This whole situation occurred because the pharmaceutical rep told the doctor there were no real side effects from that drug. Yeah, and I believe in the tooth fairy, too.

Thank you for suggesting the two books, Vickie. I will definitely get them and read them. The more I know, the better CLNC^® consultant I will be.

It’s just my humble opinion, but every time I see someone “make it” without the medications I think “OH GREAT!” Perhaps it’s the time and dedication spent on the medication suits and the wrongful death cases that has brought awareness to acute levels of self warning with new medications.

So, you know who I think turned on the lights? I think these court cases have brought these issues to the forefront. And I can’t help but feel a little “good inside” when someone tells me they chose the difficult path of self restraint instead of what is viewed as the “easy way” today and popping a pill.

I’m happy things are changing in the pharmaceutical world and I’m even happier the general public is becoming aware of the consequences of self indulgence. And I can’t help but think that, in some small way, it was a CLNC^® sitting behind a stack of cases that explained the harm a medication caused in a basic way, to an attorney, who then explained it to a jury, who then heard it and thereby the public became aware.

It helps me remember that even though I may have a small business, I am not without influence in some way to a larger, greater picture.

Nice Job Vickie!

The neurologist told me to go back to my primary physician and have her take me off one at a time of the long list of meds she had put me on, because he felt I was having a severe reaction to at least one of them. Since I had been having the symptoms approximately nine months, she started with a cholesterol med Lipitor that she started me on nine months prior. I was off the med only about a week and half when my memory started improving dramatically and it only took about 2-3 weeks until I was able to carry on a normal conversation with someone. It took me about a month and a half of being off that med and nearly all the severe symptoms subsided. I still have slight residual with expressive aphasia, mostly when I get stressed out. This is one situation where all I really needed to do was to watch what I ate, start exercising, and lose weight to control the high cholesterol, but I chose to rely on a pill that nearly ended my life.

There are situations where genetics and hereditary tendencies play a big part in health and illness esp. with cholesterol levels, and I do think if you have tried everything you know to do, but still need something to help, you should not hesitate to supplement with meds, but watch very carefully for any s/sx of adverse reactions even if they are not the normal side effects of that particular med. You may need to supplement with meds, but never turn to meds as your first choice.

My mom is 72 years old and has never taken medicines of any kind. Yes she does have some aches and pains at times, but chooses not to rely on medicines to live. She is much healthier than any of her six children. I am just starting to realize how wonderful a role model she really is.

Sometimes the side effects of the meds that are prescribed or even over the counter meds, are much worse than the benefits. When we are confronted with a situation, such as being told we need to take this new med, we need to learn to think for ourselves. We need to always consider the benefits vs. the possible consequences. We need to learn to think for ourselves what is best for us and not trust blindly that our physician and the pharmaceutical companies have our best interest at heart, because most of the time they don’t.

Vickie, thank you for recommending both the books in your blog. I will certainly be adding those to my library soon and thank you for being a great role model to all of us CLNC^® consultants, not just professionally, but you are such a great inspiration to all of us to take good care of our health and be consistent in eating good foods and exercising so we can do our very best in everything we strive to accomplish.